Improving Cooking and VCP Chemistry in WRF-Chem to More Confidently Quantify Co-Benefits of Zero-Emission Vehicle Adoption on CO2 Emissions and Air Pollutants in Los Angeles (Invited Presentation)

Los Angeles (LA) continues to experience severe air pollution, motivating us to quantify the co-benefits of zero emission vehicle (ZEV) adoption on air quality and climate. In order to accurately simulate formation of ozone and organic aerosols (OA), which are important air pollutants in urban environments, the volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and chemistry in models need to be accurately represented. Recent field campaigns such as RECAP-CA, SUNVEx, and AEROMMA provide comprehensive measurements of VOCs, nitrogen oxides (NOx), ozone, and aerosols in order to fully evaluate models and increase confidence in model predictions. Here we build on previous efforts to improve the representation of VOCs from VCPs and cooking in WRF-chem (Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled to chemistry) for ozone and peroxyacetyl nitrates (PANs) to also improve the representation of secondary and primary OA from VCPs and cooking. With the improved model, we perform sensitivity analyses on the impact of ZEV adoption on air pollution in Los Angeles using the GRAAPES (GReenhouse gas And Air Pollutants Emissions System) emission inventory, which provides emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants consistently across the US. We plan to share results for how ZEV adoption impacts air pollutants and CO₂ emissions in LA with increased confidence due to our improved model that accurately represents VOCs from VCPs and cooking for both O₃ and OA.